The present invention relates to a method for operating a leveling device for leveling coal fed in a coking oven, in which a leveling rod passing through an opening provided in an end wall of a horizontally extending chamber of the coking oven is surrounded outside the oven by channel means which communicate at one end with the opening in the end wall of the chamber and into which air under pressure is fed from the other end thereof, and an apparatus for carrying out the method.
The French Pat. No. 1,161,561 discloses an arrangement in which at least one nozzle is arranged in the opening of the end wall of a chamber of a coking oven through which the leveling rod extends in order to blow steam into the chamber. This method, however, of blowing steam, respectively air, through the opening in the end wall into the chamber has not led to satisfying results and therefore has not been used in practice. The reason therefore may reside in the excessive loading of the conduit discharging distillation gases from the chamber, respectively in explosions which may result from the air blown into the oven chamber.